Last month, I wrote about the effects of hydraulic fracturing on the lives of Julie and Craig Sautner. Today public interest investigative website, ProPublica, reports that "a scientific study has linked natural gas drilling and hydraulic fracturing with a pattern of drinking water contamination so severe that some faucets can be lit on fire". The study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, "stands to shape the contentious debate over whether drilling is safe and begins to fill an information gap that has made it difficult for lawmakers and the public to understand the risks", reports ProPublica. Click here for the full story.
Monday 9 May 2011
Saturday 7 May 2011
Gender bias in South Asian film industry?
Critically renowned Indian Filmmaker, Aparna Sen, was on a panel at the New York Indian Film Festival today, talking about her work and whether she has experienced "gender bias" in the industry.
Sen said: "I am often asked what it's like to be a women in a male-dominated industry and I've always said that I haven't come across any gender bias."
Sen explained: "A film unit is a bunch of very disciplined individuals and when they know that you know the job they shut up and listen and do what they are asked to. It's only when you are nonplussed that they won't take you seriously."
I have often heard women, in competitive industries who have male connections (like Sen) or who have such force-of-nature personalities that they just steamroll through to get what they want, make this kind of comment. There is an element of truth to it, but that doesn't mean there are not hurdles for women in less fortunate positions than Sen. The Bengali filmmaker did later go on to say that there was an invisible boy's club.
Others on the panel included, Vaishali Sinha talking discussing her documentary film, Made In India, about a western couple seeking an Indian woman for a surrogacy contract, and Bela Negi, on her film, Daayen Ya Baayen, about a man trying to find his dignity in poor village.
A great antidote to mainstream Bollywood.
Sen said: "I am often asked what it's like to be a women in a male-dominated industry and I've always said that I haven't come across any gender bias."
Sen explained: "A film unit is a bunch of very disciplined individuals and when they know that you know the job they shut up and listen and do what they are asked to. It's only when you are nonplussed that they won't take you seriously."
I have often heard women, in competitive industries who have male connections (like Sen) or who have such force-of-nature personalities that they just steamroll through to get what they want, make this kind of comment. There is an element of truth to it, but that doesn't mean there are not hurdles for women in less fortunate positions than Sen. The Bengali filmmaker did later go on to say that there was an invisible boy's club.
Others on the panel included, Vaishali Sinha talking discussing her documentary film, Made In India, about a western couple seeking an Indian woman for a surrogacy contract, and Bela Negi, on her film, Daayen Ya Baayen, about a man trying to find his dignity in poor village.
A great antidote to mainstream Bollywood.
Friday 29 April 2011
Sing Sing
As I went through security at Sing Sing Prison in Ossining this morning, the guard noticed my accent and asked why I wasn't watching the royal wedding. The grim correctional facility in upstate New York made famous in films like Breakfast at Tiffany's surely was a stark contrast to the feelgood occasion taking place in England, but it showed me how another part of America's population lived.
Our informed tour guide quashed rumors of the prison closing, saying it was too important for local jobs. Although the debate is still swirling and depends more on administrative and political decision-making.
I was at Sing Sing with colleagues from a human rights charity to look at the treatment of prisoners. We were shown the complete lack of privacy the prisoners had in their own cells complete with toilets, as we walked down a housing block and how they had to shower within 10 to 15 minutes in doorless cubicles before the warden turned off the water at the mains. Another housing block for which there is a waiting list, allowed inmates to walk around freely and even keep pets but the warden said it still hadn't stopped one inmate from knifing another to death a few weeks ago.
One person in the group thought the "prisoners had it pretty good", others imagined living in those conditions if they were unfairly imprisoned. An educational and eye-opening visit.
Our informed tour guide quashed rumors of the prison closing, saying it was too important for local jobs. Although the debate is still swirling and depends more on administrative and political decision-making.
I was at Sing Sing with colleagues from a human rights charity to look at the treatment of prisoners. We were shown the complete lack of privacy the prisoners had in their own cells complete with toilets, as we walked down a housing block and how they had to shower within 10 to 15 minutes in doorless cubicles before the warden turned off the water at the mains. Another housing block for which there is a waiting list, allowed inmates to walk around freely and even keep pets but the warden said it still hadn't stopped one inmate from knifing another to death a few weeks ago.
One person in the group thought the "prisoners had it pretty good", others imagined living in those conditions if they were unfairly imprisoned. An educational and eye-opening visit.
Thursday 7 April 2011
Social mobility on both sides of the Atlantic
I liked columnist and writer, Allison Pearson's view on UK Deputy PM Nick Clegg's social mobility strategy plans reported in the UK press this week. Clegg said he wanted to reverse the unpaid internship culture that favoured the wealthy and well-connected.
Pearson pointed out: "Fairness is the new buzzword for politicians, yet string-pulling is to our ruling elite what rain is to Swansea. It’s the prevailing climate, whether you’re Left or Right."
Last month a black British journalist who has been working in the US media for more than a decade told me she preferred working in America because there were more opportunities for people like her than in the UK. She told me she did not think she would have made it to a senior rank like she had in the States, in the UK. (Although, the trade-off was a general lack of intellectualism and an inappropriate amount of deference to authority figures in the US media, she added!)
Yet the U.S. has its own problems in this area. Coincidentally, last week there was debate around a new book published here called “Intern Nation: How to Earn Nothing and Learn Little in the Brave New Economy” by a researcher at the Himalayan Languages Project, Ross Perlin. He writes: "Colleges and universities have become cheerleaders and enablers of the unpaid internship boom, failing to inform young people of their rights or protect them from the miserly calculus of employers. In hundreds of interviews with interns over the past three years, I found dejected students resigned to working unpaid for summers, semesters and even entire academic years — and, increasingly, to paying for the privilege."
On both sides of the Atlantic, the more wealthy and well-connected are likely to be able to survive while doing these internships. But in the US the point is that interns are being exploited to weaken the leverage of existing employees trying to find work in the current economy - i.e. professionals, which others may refer to as the jilted generation.
Pearson pointed out: "Fairness is the new buzzword for politicians, yet string-pulling is to our ruling elite what rain is to Swansea. It’s the prevailing climate, whether you’re Left or Right."
Last month a black British journalist who has been working in the US media for more than a decade told me she preferred working in America because there were more opportunities for people like her than in the UK. She told me she did not think she would have made it to a senior rank like she had in the States, in the UK. (Although, the trade-off was a general lack of intellectualism and an inappropriate amount of deference to authority figures in the US media, she added!)
Yet the U.S. has its own problems in this area. Coincidentally, last week there was debate around a new book published here called “Intern Nation: How to Earn Nothing and Learn Little in the Brave New Economy” by a researcher at the Himalayan Languages Project, Ross Perlin. He writes: "Colleges and universities have become cheerleaders and enablers of the unpaid internship boom, failing to inform young people of their rights or protect them from the miserly calculus of employers. In hundreds of interviews with interns over the past three years, I found dejected students resigned to working unpaid for summers, semesters and even entire academic years — and, increasingly, to paying for the privilege."
On both sides of the Atlantic, the more wealthy and well-connected are likely to be able to survive while doing these internships. But in the US the point is that interns are being exploited to weaken the leverage of existing employees trying to find work in the current economy - i.e. professionals, which others may refer to as the jilted generation.
Tuesday 5 April 2011
How much can Britain be blamed for problems in its former colonies?
So British PM, David Cameron, has said that Britain is responsible for most of the world's problems as he made a visit to Pakistan. When asked what Britain could do when it came to the dispute in Kashmir, he replied: “I don’t want to try to insert Britain in some leading role where, as with so many of the world’s problems, we are responsible for the issue in the first place.”
At home in the UK, he was criticised for being too ready to tell foreign hosts what they wanted to hear by saying Britain is responsible for everything bad that may have happened in its former colonies. The issue is too complex and cannot be simplified but I know it is a recurring and contentious one. In 2006 it came up in a different setting - when Radio 4 ran its This Sceptred Isle: Empire series and historians examined how Britain and other countries around the world have been changed by their experience of empire. Historian Niall Ferguson and academic Priya Gopal exchanged polemical blows on whether the former was a imperial apologist.
The British Empire operated differently from place to place, and any discussion of its possible benefits should take that into account and its negative impacts cannot be denied either. The whole point should be to engage less in a polemical battle of views but more on learning about the past, knowing we cannot change it. Then doing what we can to change negative situations in the present. Not easy, I know, but more mature and effective perhaps?
At home in the UK, he was criticised for being too ready to tell foreign hosts what they wanted to hear by saying Britain is responsible for everything bad that may have happened in its former colonies. The issue is too complex and cannot be simplified but I know it is a recurring and contentious one. In 2006 it came up in a different setting - when Radio 4 ran its This Sceptred Isle: Empire series and historians examined how Britain and other countries around the world have been changed by their experience of empire. Historian Niall Ferguson and academic Priya Gopal exchanged polemical blows on whether the former was a imperial apologist.
The British Empire operated differently from place to place, and any discussion of its possible benefits should take that into account and its negative impacts cannot be denied either. The whole point should be to engage less in a polemical battle of views but more on learning about the past, knowing we cannot change it. Then doing what we can to change negative situations in the present. Not easy, I know, but more mature and effective perhaps?
Sunday 3 April 2011
Fracking up American lives?
You may have heard of fracking in the documentary film, Gasland (or maybe in Battlestar Galactica where it's used as a more polite substitute for other insults). In this blog entry I am referring to the former definition.
On Sunday, I travelled to Dimock in Pennsylvania to talk to Craig and Julie Sautner about the consequences of living near "fracking" sites. What is fracking? It's another term for hydraulic fracturing, a method of natural gas extraction employed in deep natural gas well drilling. Once a well is drilled, millions of gallons of water, sand and proprietary chemicals are injected, under high pressure, into a well. The pressure fractures the shale and props open fissures that enable natural gas to flow more freely out of the well.
The potential harm to health and the environment is under-researched and films like Gasland and the testimonies of those like the Sautners, provide a massive cause for concern. The Sautners have not had clean running water for almost two years and are not able to sell their home and move because of this. Instead, they have to use spring water provided to them by the barrel. In the meantime they are breathing in air that they believe is being contaminated by the drilling of gas companies.
On our trip, at least three of my colleagues felt nauseous upon arriving in Dimock. One has a sensitivity to chemicals and said she could taste metal on her tongue as soon as she entered the town.
The Sautners vow to stand firm against any continuation of the drilling as a moratorium passed last year to stop gas companies drilling for a time, comes to an end. The Sautners are calling for more research on the health and environmental fallout of "fracking" as well as a clean water supply.
On Sunday, I travelled to Dimock in Pennsylvania to talk to Craig and Julie Sautner about the consequences of living near "fracking" sites. What is fracking? It's another term for hydraulic fracturing, a method of natural gas extraction employed in deep natural gas well drilling. Once a well is drilled, millions of gallons of water, sand and proprietary chemicals are injected, under high pressure, into a well. The pressure fractures the shale and props open fissures that enable natural gas to flow more freely out of the well.
The potential harm to health and the environment is under-researched and films like Gasland and the testimonies of those like the Sautners, provide a massive cause for concern. The Sautners have not had clean running water for almost two years and are not able to sell their home and move because of this. Instead, they have to use spring water provided to them by the barrel. In the meantime they are breathing in air that they believe is being contaminated by the drilling of gas companies.
On our trip, at least three of my colleagues felt nauseous upon arriving in Dimock. One has a sensitivity to chemicals and said she could taste metal on her tongue as soon as she entered the town.
The Sautners vow to stand firm against any continuation of the drilling as a moratorium passed last year to stop gas companies drilling for a time, comes to an end. The Sautners are calling for more research on the health and environmental fallout of "fracking" as well as a clean water supply.
Thursday 31 March 2011
Freedom to Create
You must be in a pretty horrific situation if you perceive that setting yourself on fire is the only way to escape from it. The aftermath of attempted self-immolation by some Afghani women is documented in photographs by Lynsey Addario, showing at a new exhibit in New York.
The art on display at the Freedom to Create exhibit at the Ana Tzarev Gallery is not limited to these terrible experiences though. The exhibit which opened with a forum about empowering women through creativity showcases art by women from countries such as Iran, Iraq, Nepal, Pakistan and Lebanon. Some of the work is an affirmation of being human in a society that may try to prohibit that expression. For example, Salome, a Iranian rapper and poet, is keen to point out that she is not a "feeble woman struggling to fight for her right to sing" in a country where arts and culture are heavily restricted, especially for female performers. She says she wants to be recognised for expressing herself creatively and not as a struggling woman in an oppressive society.
Freedom to Create which is a non-profit organization based in Singapore was established in 2006 to "harness the power art and culture to build more creative and prosperous societies" and since 2008 has been awarding prizes to artists, too.
Vice president, Priti Devi, told me the organization believes in building societies from the bottom up. She says: "We want people to use their talents to express themselves and to have the right to be creative that everyone must have." If people are able to express themselves they have the confidence to use it and do other things with it, such as using it in an entrepreneurial way and this can reap financial reward for the individual, the larger family and then society, according to Freedom to Create.
Devi says if this can happen the world's attention can become focused on their activities which can help funnel in more money to their societies. She points out the recent events in Egypt as a broad example of people being forced to live "smaller" lives and not being part of a global economy. "They realised they were left out of prosperity and they realised they wanted to be a part of that. Flourishing is not just the right of a few people." This is Freedom to Create's role, adds Devi.
The art on display at the Freedom to Create exhibit at the Ana Tzarev Gallery is not limited to these terrible experiences though. The exhibit which opened with a forum about empowering women through creativity showcases art by women from countries such as Iran, Iraq, Nepal, Pakistan and Lebanon. Some of the work is an affirmation of being human in a society that may try to prohibit that expression. For example, Salome, a Iranian rapper and poet, is keen to point out that she is not a "feeble woman struggling to fight for her right to sing" in a country where arts and culture are heavily restricted, especially for female performers. She says she wants to be recognised for expressing herself creatively and not as a struggling woman in an oppressive society.
Freedom to Create which is a non-profit organization based in Singapore was established in 2006 to "harness the power art and culture to build more creative and prosperous societies" and since 2008 has been awarding prizes to artists, too.
Vice president, Priti Devi, told me the organization believes in building societies from the bottom up. She says: "We want people to use their talents to express themselves and to have the right to be creative that everyone must have." If people are able to express themselves they have the confidence to use it and do other things with it, such as using it in an entrepreneurial way and this can reap financial reward for the individual, the larger family and then society, according to Freedom to Create.
Devi says if this can happen the world's attention can become focused on their activities which can help funnel in more money to their societies. She points out the recent events in Egypt as a broad example of people being forced to live "smaller" lives and not being part of a global economy. "They realised they were left out of prosperity and they realised they wanted to be a part of that. Flourishing is not just the right of a few people." This is Freedom to Create's role, adds Devi.
Friday 18 March 2011
Five Rivers to Five Boroughs—Soho Road to the USA
I attended the launch of an exhibit titled, Five Rivers to Five Boroughs—Soho Road to the USA, and a panel discussion about bhangra music at 92y in Tribeca, New York, tonight. It charts the rise of the drum-driven music and dance from the Punjab, now heard on streets and dance floors throughout the US, UK & beyond.
The panel discussion touched upon not just bhangra's popularity as a music form but how it linked to issues within the South Asian diaspora.
Some American-born South Asians in the audience bemoaned the lack of a platform for bhangra music in the USA, saying it had more of a solid base in the UK and there was more performance of it there, too. Shin from live music group, DCS, said the live music scene was waning because of the popularity of DJ culture. Ethnographer, Nina Chanpreet Singh, also on the panel, said bhangra had become a way through which young South Asian men asserted their identity, after 9/11 had made them more vulnerable targets of hate crime.
These are just snippets of some of the interesting discussions.
The exhibit itself features photography, album sleeves, promotional art and rare examples of print media that helped spread the bhangra sound across the world. It's contributors, such as journalist and DJ Boy Chana, Alaap stalwart Kalyan and DJ favorites San-j Sanj, & DJ Rekha, have allowed unique access to their personal collections of never-before-seen photographs and archives. The exhibition has toured to over 70 venues already in the UK and Europe. Click here for details.
Wednesday 16 March 2011
Muslim Women's Film Festival
Tomorrow in Los Angeles, hundreds of films from around the world by women living in Muslim majority and western countries, will be shown. These women's voices will be added to a global discourse that usually lacks them. The Muslim Women's Film Festival will be a part of a wider initiative to get these women’s stories heard by a New York-based charity called Women's Voices Now.
The 98 short films in the festival (available online), focus on stories about and mostly by women and girls living in Muslim majority societies and those living as minorities around the globe.
The mixture of fiction and documentary films looks at the lives of Iran’s first female bus driver, two women married to the same man, and an all-female Tae Kwon Do group in Afghanistan.
The aim of the festival is to allow Muslim women to tell their stories by themselves through citizen journalism and the Internet, so their voices and perspectives register on the western public consciousness.
Catinca Tabacaru, a lawyer and head of Women's Voices Now, says: “The content of the films is surprising to western audiences who are not used to seeing Muslim women portrayed as heroes and changemakers."
The festival is not a one-off but a year-long campaign with focused events planned in other countries (a UK visit is in the works, too), beginning with the festival. The organization plans to travel to Muslim majority countries and show these films. Tabacaru says that the festival and campaign is not about fixing these societies but “creating a platform” for women’s stories.
The 98 short films in the festival (available online), focus on stories about and mostly by women and girls living in Muslim majority societies and those living as minorities around the globe.
The mixture of fiction and documentary films looks at the lives of Iran’s first female bus driver, two women married to the same man, and an all-female Tae Kwon Do group in Afghanistan.
The aim of the festival is to allow Muslim women to tell their stories by themselves through citizen journalism and the Internet, so their voices and perspectives register on the western public consciousness.
Catinca Tabacaru, a lawyer and head of Women's Voices Now, says: “The content of the films is surprising to western audiences who are not used to seeing Muslim women portrayed as heroes and changemakers."
The festival is not a one-off but a year-long campaign with focused events planned in other countries (a UK visit is in the works, too), beginning with the festival. The organization plans to travel to Muslim majority countries and show these films. Tabacaru says that the festival and campaign is not about fixing these societies but “creating a platform” for women’s stories.
Friday 11 March 2011
Radio Bruce
Today I co-hosted Dave Marsh's morning show on E-Street Radio, a Bruce Springsteen radio station (yes, such a thing exists), talking about my essay that will be pubished in a book about the rock musician in May.
My contribution was based on a presentation I gave at a Bruce Springsteen Symposium in 2005.
My relationship with Springsteen's music has changed since that time but the essay gives a snapshot of how my fandom developed.
Some have viewed my fandom with mocking scepticism. Why turn to a rock star who is so far removed from your day-to-day life for inspiration and guidance, some would say to me? Isn't that what we all do as teenagers and then grow out of it?
I can understand this point of view but Springsteen's music is not just for teenage phases - or only for men for that matter, the gender that makes up most of his audience. I believe it is for anyone stuck in a spiritual rut.
Springsteen once said it wasn't his job to carry the dreams of his fans, only to inspire them to carry their own. I am sure he feels the pressure from fans and his own image to act a certain way. Who knows what its really like for it to be routine to have hundreds of thousands of people screaming out your name, on a regular basis since you were 25 up to your sixties?
It's a completely different world to the ones fans usually inhabit despite his regular Joe Schmoe image. But Springsteen never asked us to trust him in the same way he asked us to trust his music. I feel some fans find it hard to extricate the two - not that it's an easy thing to do.
My relationship with his music has changed because I have. I don't listen to his music manically anymore and I don't feel the need to queue for three days to get a front row position at one of his gigs. But his music is a tool that I have used to find my place in the world.
In a way, that's what all art should do. Rather than try and enchant us with the cult of personality that surrounds its maker. Even if this is so enmeshed with art in modern times.
Sunday 23 January 2011
My New York debut
Many come to New York with a pipe dream. It's fabulous to have dreams if we don't get carried away with the fantasy and focus on our own strengths and passions to make them come true.
A few months ago I realised one of my own on the upper west side of Manhattan: I played guitar and sang in public for the first time in my life. When I first started to sing a few years ago it was a mystery to me what my voice would sound like, especially because my speaking voice is soft-spoken.
At the end of my performance of a Bruce Springsteen and a U2 song, complete strangers clapped and came up to tell me how they had enjoyed my "soothing" and "rich" singing and playing. I then repeated the feat at a house party last night where again - people I did not know - were hanging on each word I sang.
I am looking forward to developing my singing and playing further and discovering other parts of me that I only dreamed existed but which have become real in New York.
Sunday 16 January 2011
Light of Day 2011
Yesterday night I attended the Light of Day benefit concert in Asbury Park, New Jersey. Great show for a great cause (to help raise money for sufferers of Parkinson's disease). Unbilled and unsurprisingly, Bruce Springsteen played a 90-minute set. Kelly-Jane Cotter from the Asbury Park Press described Springsteen as the 'gift with the purchase' for those with tickets. And you know what to expect when Springsteen plays NJ.
The clichés: the gig was mostly attended by affluent, middle-aged men, many in gold jewellery, who would not be out of place in an episode of the Sopranos and ladies looking like New Jersey housewives. Not a typical Springsteen crowd outside of NJ. Another cliché: Springsteen stole the show. Well, he's going to isn't he? That's not to say the other performers are not stellar artistes. But Springsteen's mantle as spokesman of joy, broken dreams, hopes and romantic nostalgia has pierced the consciousness of more than one generation of fan. This means he's going to affect more listeners than those whose work hasn't been given that platform and investment. Third cliché: grown men blubbering "I love you Bruce!" and screaming in desperate joy as he begins fraught-father-son-relationship song, Adam Raised A Cain. Fourth cliché: ultra-tetchy bouncers and security trying to control over-zealous Springsteen fans' attempts to shoot to the front of the stage.
I am sure there are many others. Springsteen joined Jesse Malin, Willie Nile and others on duets before belting out his own The Promised Land, Atlantic City, Your Own Worst Enemy and more to satiate a salivating audience - and an irrepressible Springsteen! An unexpected punk highlight was photographer, Danny Clinch's harmonica on simple and fun, Pink Cadillac.
Alejandro Escovedo played a soulful, acoustic set that ran the gamut in emotion, style and rhythm. Jesse Malin and the St Marks Social's fresh chemistry buoyed the audience with songs from Malin's latest album, Love it to Life. Willie Nile horsed around yet sang with heart and conviction, including the rousing, One Guitar.
Springsteen played one of the longest sets he's ever done for a Light of Day show. Could this be any indication of a tour in 2011? Let's hope.
The clichés: the gig was mostly attended by affluent, middle-aged men, many in gold jewellery, who would not be out of place in an episode of the Sopranos and ladies looking like New Jersey housewives. Not a typical Springsteen crowd outside of NJ. Another cliché: Springsteen stole the show. Well, he's going to isn't he? That's not to say the other performers are not stellar artistes. But Springsteen's mantle as spokesman of joy, broken dreams, hopes and romantic nostalgia has pierced the consciousness of more than one generation of fan. This means he's going to affect more listeners than those whose work hasn't been given that platform and investment. Third cliché: grown men blubbering "I love you Bruce!" and screaming in desperate joy as he begins fraught-father-son-relationship song, Adam Raised A Cain. Fourth cliché: ultra-tetchy bouncers and security trying to control over-zealous Springsteen fans' attempts to shoot to the front of the stage.
I am sure there are many others. Springsteen joined Jesse Malin, Willie Nile and others on duets before belting out his own The Promised Land, Atlantic City, Your Own Worst Enemy and more to satiate a salivating audience - and an irrepressible Springsteen! An unexpected punk highlight was photographer, Danny Clinch's harmonica on simple and fun, Pink Cadillac.
Alejandro Escovedo played a soulful, acoustic set that ran the gamut in emotion, style and rhythm. Jesse Malin and the St Marks Social's fresh chemistry buoyed the audience with songs from Malin's latest album, Love it to Life. Willie Nile horsed around yet sang with heart and conviction, including the rousing, One Guitar.
Springsteen played one of the longest sets he's ever done for a Light of Day show. Could this be any indication of a tour in 2011? Let's hope.
Saturday 1 January 2011
Rebel Queen
I wrote a piece in the New Year Eve's edition of the Guardian about the last queen of the Punjab, Jindan Kaur.
The piece highlights the life of an inspiring, gutsy and far-from-perfect heroine in Punjabi culture. But it is also is a microcosm of a wider issue that needs to be highlighted: that there is a culture of female dissent in the east. This may seem obvious. But how often are women in "the Orient" to use Edward Said's term, made to appear too eager to be dominated and often victims rather than pro-active women in charge of their destinies. Too often and this view is perpetuated in the media too.
Knowing about a historical figure like Jindan Kaur may not change the image of women or even people's minds overnight, but it shows that there are figures to look back to. Complex women who had much to contend with and showed grit and persistence in the face of odds. Highlighting such women helps us begin the process of asking: where are they? How can we continue to highlight them and raise awareness of them?
There is a argument I did not get to make about how western feminists can sometimes look down on women’s struggles in eastern countries without realizing that a history of dissent does exist and we don’t always know about the figures that instigated it. Or the figures are not always spoken about in a way that makes them recognizable as part of a social movement.
But there are figures like Jindan Kaur. Then there are others like the writer Amrita Pritam who wrote about the horrific fallout for women in the Punjab during Partition - stories not discussed enough. Also the Rokeya Hossain story mentioned in the feature - Sultana's Dream - came ten years before what is considered one of the first western feminist utopian stories, Herland, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. This indicates a visionary attitude for society by women living in it at the time; not just passive women living as victims of oppression.
What history/stories are we missing while we are engaging in debates? When I went to the British Library to do research on Jindan Kaur, a search of her name yielded few results in the computerised archives. The librarian told me women were "very badly represented" in the catalogue. There needs to be radical rethinking of how we view history and one place we can start is by digging out these 'hidden heroines' and spreading awareness of them.
The piece highlights the life of an inspiring, gutsy and far-from-perfect heroine in Punjabi culture. But it is also is a microcosm of a wider issue that needs to be highlighted: that there is a culture of female dissent in the east. This may seem obvious. But how often are women in "the Orient" to use Edward Said's term, made to appear too eager to be dominated and often victims rather than pro-active women in charge of their destinies. Too often and this view is perpetuated in the media too.
Knowing about a historical figure like Jindan Kaur may not change the image of women or even people's minds overnight, but it shows that there are figures to look back to. Complex women who had much to contend with and showed grit and persistence in the face of odds. Highlighting such women helps us begin the process of asking: where are they? How can we continue to highlight them and raise awareness of them?
There is a argument I did not get to make about how western feminists can sometimes look down on women’s struggles in eastern countries without realizing that a history of dissent does exist and we don’t always know about the figures that instigated it. Or the figures are not always spoken about in a way that makes them recognizable as part of a social movement.
But there are figures like Jindan Kaur. Then there are others like the writer Amrita Pritam who wrote about the horrific fallout for women in the Punjab during Partition - stories not discussed enough. Also the Rokeya Hossain story mentioned in the feature - Sultana's Dream - came ten years before what is considered one of the first western feminist utopian stories, Herland, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. This indicates a visionary attitude for society by women living in it at the time; not just passive women living as victims of oppression.
What history/stories are we missing while we are engaging in debates? When I went to the British Library to do research on Jindan Kaur, a search of her name yielded few results in the computerised archives. The librarian told me women were "very badly represented" in the catalogue. There needs to be radical rethinking of how we view history and one place we can start is by digging out these 'hidden heroines' and spreading awareness of them.
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